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Innovative technology and organic scenery explore the breakdown of a corrupt royal family

April 8, 2011, Valencia, CA—Phaedra’s Love, by Sarah Kane, invites audiences to examine their perceptions of love, community and self. Phaedra’s Love, directed by Marina McClure, will be performed at California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) School of Theater from Thursday-Saturday, April 28-30, and Monday-Tuesday, May 2-3 at 8pm, with a 2pm matinee on Saturday, April 30. Performances will be in E407 on the CalArts campus (24700 McBean Parkway, Valencia 91355). General admission is $10.00 and $2.00 for CalArts students and associates with valid ID. For reservations, please visit www.calarts.edu/calendar.

Holistically fusing audience, performer and space, McClure creates a diseased world centered on Hippolytus, a prince poisoned by despondency. Rejecting his stepmother’s burning love and his kingdom’s hypocritical adulation, Hippolytus fills the void with television and sex as the kingdom crumbles around him. Savage, brutal and honest, Phaedra’s Love seeks to broaden our understanding of humanity.

For this contemporary adaptation of Seneca’s Roman classic, McClure led a fluid process that encouraged all designers, performers, managers and technicians to step outside of their assigned roles, experimenting with different materials, techniques, and ways of creating a performance. “This endows the piece with an element of truth and sincerity,” said McClure. “This piece is a gift from one community—that of the theatrical ensemble—to another—the audience,” remarked scenic designer Nicolas Benacerraf.

Marina McClure is a Los Angeles based director, producer, choreographer, and yoga instructor and collage artist, driven by a belief that “art expands the scope of our acceptance.” Her work has been showcased at the New York & Capital Fringe Festivals, REDCAT, the Kennedy Center, Manhattan Theater Source, and the Eugene O’Neil Theater Center. Most notably, she is the co-founder of the Savannah Theatre Project, where she produced a program of artistic exchange between American and South African artists and communities. She is also the founding Artistic Director of Odyssey Productions, an ensemble theater company, in New York, dedicated to collective creation. McClure has received the General-Campbell Fellowship, Waterhouse Grant, FAR Space Artist Residency and Gurdin Directing Award.